Paradoxically, as a hero who constantly plays games and plays them well, sometimes the most interesting thing about Harry Potter is when he either refuses to play, or he plays, but he doesn’t play to win. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , when Harry returns to the Gryffindor common room after his name comes out of the Goblet, the celebration in his honor rivals the most raucous post-Quidditch party. Earlier in the book we only hear about Hogwarts students who are Quidditch players putting their name in the Goblet (see Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 17: The Goblet of Games ), and Quidditch also unites the first people who congratulate Harry—Fred, George, Angelina and Katie—plus Lee Jordan, the Quidditch commentator. In the case of the Goblet of Fire, Harry not only doesn’t play to win when it comes to being chosen as a Triwizard Champion—he isn’t playing this game at all, taking for granted that it is impossible for him to cross the age-line created by Dumbledore to ke...
